Mercedes AMG GT S

Keeping a wide open throttle over Turn 1’s blind crest that leads into Laguna Seca’s Andretti Hairpin is a heart stopping leap of faith. It's taken flat out and it doesn’t matter how many times you do it, every nerve in your body is firehosing warning messages at the part of your brain charged with self-preservation, urging it to order your throttle foot to stand at ease.

It’s not an easy instinct to ignore first time through. All the paddock talk about the correct line over the crest has been long forgotten, and we’re desperately clinging to the back of a three car convoy as former DTM double champion Bernd Schneider pummels around the lap. His green tiger-striped Mercedes-AMG GT S may have the same 510 horsepower ours does, but track knowledge and a
super license racer’s skills are a tough combination to combat.

NEXT LAP AROUND, THE SPEEDO HITS 194 KM/H AND THE THROTTLE STAYS PEGGED RIGHT TO THE BRAKING MARKERS.

It appears Schneider has no real interest in keeping us in his mirrors either. First time over the crest on our warm-up lap, the speedo tickles 180 km/h and he is still extending the daylight between the trio of cars on his tail. The track is damp, the car goes light over the crest and the tail twitches ever so slightly to the right before settling down for the run down to Andretti. Next lap around, the speedo hits 194 km/h and the throttle stays pegged right to the braking markers. The rear gets squirmy under heavy braking and a late left apex seems to take ages to arrive. This is bread and butter stuff for Schneider, but it’s a shove into the deep end for a Laguna Seca novice.

The Mercedes AMG GT S is a hell of a car so much so that we’re hogging as much seat time as we can on track before it closes. It’s an incredibly fast circuit with only 11 corners over its 3.6 kilometre length, and only three of them are apexed at under 100 km/h. The rest are fast and require girded loins and ultimate trust in your machinery. Six sessions later and on a much drier track, Schneider has us lapping at a metronomic 1:44. It’s still 11 seconds off the pace of the production car lap record set by the Dodge Viper TA, but it’s fast enough to give you enough to think about over that blind crest and through the notorious Corkscrew. It’s the kind of pace you’ll see out of the race prepped Mustang Boss 302 Trans Am cars that tackle the annual Rolex Monterey Motorsport, or a front running IMSA GT car from the 1980s.

Yet the sensation of speed in this, the car with which Daimler hopes to take a chunk out of Porsche’s 911, is muted. You do not quite realise the sheer velocities attainable until the right foot attempts to extricate itself from the floorboard  just ahead of the crest marking the end of the front straight. Or until one experiences the forces acting upon the car when slowing for the Andretti Hairpin. Point,
squirt, brake, repeat: The result is subdued violence all the way around the course. Atop the Corkscrew, the long bonnet and low windshield header conspire against sightlines. The quick and sure turn-in, paired with predictable front-end grip, more than make up for those shortcomings after a couple of laps.

The twin-turbo 4.0-litre M178 V-8 dispenses with the grunty, naturally aspirated honk-’n’-braaaap soundtrack that the late, lamented C63 Black Series offered. Home taping is killing music, turbocharging is killing engines’ auditory war cry but not in the AMG GT S. The usual turbo delay is undetectable, thanks mainly to the fact AMG has buried them both within the V of the engine. This hot-V configuration shortens induction and exhaust lengths had helps retain boost pressures even when offthrottle. The engine is also dry sumped to help keep installation lower and further back in the
chassis, pushing the car’s centre of gravity and lateral inertia points closer to the road.

The soundtrack may lack the thunderous overtones the SLS AMG Black Series did, but it’s still deeply impressive. The optional sports exhaust has hydraulic valves controlled by the ECU and is tuned to behave itself in Comfort mode, or spit out a series of rapid fi re bursts which sound like machine gun practice at a military range in Race mode. There’s also a little pop between shifts when you've dialled in Race mode.

Instead of ripping off a clean sheet of paper, the engineers started with the awesome SLS AMG supercar; you can see the similarities in their proportions. Both feature a long hood, a steeply raked windshield, and a compact greenhouse, but this car is softer, more refined, and less brutal to behold. Unlike the SLS, however, the GT has a large hatch to access the boot.

AMG trimmed 90 kilograms from the SLS’s 1735 kg curb weight and cut the wheelbase by 50 mm. The AMG GT S is also 92 mm shorter between the bumpers. The lighter engine and shorter nose help shift the GT S’s weight balance to 45/55 percent, front/rear, what AMG considers the perfect distribution. The rear transaxle arrangement, carried over from the SLS, helps as does the car’s motorsport derived double wishbone suspension, steering knuckles and hub carriers which are all made in forged aluminium.

THE SOUNDTRACK MAY LACK THE THUNDEROUS OVERTONES OF THE SLS AMG BLACK SERIES, BUT IT’S STILL IMPRESSIVE.

To help promote the car’s dual nature as a refi ned road car and a track monster, AMG fitted a set of four electronically controlled hydraulic mounts supporting the far corners of the powertrain. Two in front attach to the engine, while two in back carry the Getrag transaxle. (A torque tube ties the two ends together.) As the car turns, the front mounts’ initially soft setting fools the front tyres into thinking they’re guiding a much lighter machine. The nose swings first,  followed milliseconds later by the engine. This agility-sharpening ploy works so subtly that the sensation passed through the seat and steering wheel is that of one fluid movement.

Steering feel is tremendous. It’s still hydraulic but it’s boosted just enough to take the chore out of sawing it from side to side. Jaguar employed a similar set-up in the F-Type and the results were just as impressive. Something tells us that an electric power booster will inevitably make its way into the car but, for now, the rack remains one of the most precise available.

Step over the wide, structural door sill (using parts from the SLS roadster) and the you’ll fi nd the sports bucket seats are comfortable and supportive. There’s more room inside than a 911 thanks mainly to the GT S carrying over the SLS’s overall width.

STEERING FEEL IS TREMENDOUS. IT’S BOOSTED JUST ENOUGH TO TAKE THE CHORE OUT OF SAWING IT FROM SIDE TO SIDE.

The compact arrangement of the stubby shifter, the COMAND mouse and the eight round switches at the rear of the broad, rising centre console clears room for two cupholders. Some may question the need for cupholders in a sportscar, but they’re a necessity if the car is to be used every day. The centre armrest has storage too, but it’s easier to thow phonesm change, receipts and other everyday detritis into the cupholder as a temporary measure.

There’s a decent sized luggage space under the rear hatch that will take 350 litres worth of stuff and hide it under a fabric cover. In plain terms, it’s a decent space, big enough for three squashy bags.

AMG has not been so bold as come out and directly say it is targeting the 911 with the GT S, but any sports car maker worth their salt knows that have an uphill battle if they’re to beat the Porsche at a game it’s mastered for the past 50 years. Porsche knows it has a target painted on its back and that its rivals are always looking to chip away at its market share.

Bringing its halo car within reach of its customers will help. The pricey SLS was a fantastic car, but it simply cost too much and was too exclusive to help push sporty drivers and track day enthusiasts outside their financial comfort zone. The last two sportscars to wear the three-pointed star, the SLS and the McLaren SLR did precisely that, which forced Mercedes customers to look elsewhere.

The new AMG GT S and its future variants will help keep them inhouse. The 462 hp non-S model will makes an appearance during the fi rst half of 2015, and the GT S Edition 1 models the automotive equivalent of a first  edition book has already sold out. Mercedes AMG has already committed the GT S to a race programme under FIA GT3 regulations, and the race car is under
development now. AMG would not say when the car will make its competition debut, but said it would absolutely not be during next month’s Dubai 24 Hour endurance race.

As an alternative to the Audi R8 and upmarket versions of the Jaguar F-Type R-coupe, the AMG GT S makes an impressive dynamic statement . Whether it has the impetus to take on the 911 remains to be seen. We’ll bring you a head to-head as soon as we’re able to match the two on home soil. Release dates and prices for the GCC have not been announced.

SPECIFICATIONS
ENGINE TYPE: twin-turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injection
DISPLACEMENT : 3982 cc
POWER : 510 hp @ 6250 rpm
TORQUE : 650 Nm @ 1750 rpm
VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door hatchback
BASE PRICE  $150,000
TRANSMISSION:7-speed dual-clutch automatic with manual shifting mode
WHEELBASE : 2630 mm
LENGTH: 4546 mm
WIDTH :  1939 mm
HEIGHT : 1288 mm
CURB WEIGHT: 1645 kg

PERFORMANCE
ZERO TO 100km/h : 3.8 sec
STANDING 1/4-MILE: 11.5 sec
TOP SPEED : 310 km/h

FUEL ECONOMY
COMBINED CYCLE : 9.4 l/100km